The Isle of Man’s Financial Services Authority has published a response to comments received in connection with a draft guidance note published earlier in the year, which proposed certain changes to the way collective investment schemes are regulated.

The Feedback Statement to the Discussion Paper on Draft Guidance Note – Governance of Collective Investment Schemes, as it’s called, makes a number of points,one of which is in response to the observation that certain best practice principles outlined in the guidance note “may contribute to further contraction of the Isle of Man’s funds sector, due to the time and costs incurred by industry participants”.

To this, the IoM FSA said it “acknowledges that regulatory measures can impose a time and cost burden; however, in this case the guidance note simply sets out best practice, rather than imposing additional regulatory requirements”.

At another point, the IoM FSA says a single set of guidance covering schemes governance across all three Crown Dependencies – Jersey, Guernsey and the IoM – “was not within the scope of this exercise”, and that “governance arrangements vary across jurisdictions due to local legal frameworks, regulatory requirements and product structures”.

An amended Guidance Note is due to be published on the authority’s website today, and a press release issued in due course, the document says.

As reported, the IoM FSA published its Draft Guidance Note on how collective investment schemes should best be regulated in May, in what was understood at the time to have been a response to certain recent investment scheme failures that had left some investors out-of-pocket.

The deadline for comments was 14 July, and the fact that comments received might “not result in a change to the proposals” under consideration was noted.

To read the 32-page Feedback Statement on the IoM FSA’s website, click here.